It is well known that exposure to severe stress increases the risk for developing mood disorders. Currently, the
neurobiological and genetic mechanisms underlying the functional effects of psychological stress are poorly understood. Presenting a major
obstacle to the study of psychological stress is the inability of current animal models of stress to distinguish between physical and
psychological stressors. A novel paradigm recently developed by Warren et al., is able to tease apart the effects of physical and
psychological stress in adult mice by allowing these mice to "witness," the social defeat of another mouse thus removing confounding
variables associated with physical stressors. Using this ‘witness’ model of stress and RNA-Seq technology, the current study aims to study
the genetic effects of psychological stress. After, witnessing the social defeat of another mouse, VTA tissue was extracted, sequenced,
and analyzed for differential expression. Since genes often work together in complex networks, a pathway and gene ontology (GO) analysis
was performed using data from the differential expression analysis. The pathway and GO analyzes revealed a perturbation of the
glutamatergic synapse pathway and an enrichment of positive excitatory post-synaptic potential regulation. This is consistent with the
excitatory synapse theory of depression. Together these findings demonstrate a dysregulation of the mesolimbic reward pathway at the gene
level as a result of psychological stress potentially contributing to depressive like behaviors. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester 2016. / November 21, 2016. / Pathway and GO analysis of VTA tissue after psychological stress / Includes bibliographical references. / James F. Johnson, Professor Directing Thesis; Jiang Feng, Committee Member; Michelle Arbeitman,
Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_405557 |
| Contributors | Brewer, Jacob S. (Jacob Shay) (authoraut), Johnson, Frank (professor directing thesis), Feng, Jiang (committee member), Arbeitman, Michelle N. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Psychology (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (36 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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